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Gandhi Jayanti: Reporters slam attacks on media

Gauri Lankesh - a vocal critic of the government – was killed last month [Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images]

Journalists in dozens of cities across India have protested against recent attacks on the media on the 148th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the country's independence movement.

"Journalists have protested in almost every state across India today. This is unprecedented and historic," tweeted senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai on Monday, who was among the more than 100 journalists gathered at the Press Club of India in New Delhi.

Between 100 to 150 journalists in New Delhi formed human chains to send a message of peace.

"Gandhi Jayanti is a day of peace. We took out a peaceful march from the Press Club of India to the Women's Press Corps," Munne Bharti, a journalist with NDTV, told Al Jazeera.

Ravish Kumar, one of India's finest broadcast journalists, wrote a public letter last week to the Indian prime minister, seeking Modi's intervention to stop online harassment and threats against journalists.

"The sad part is that you happen to follow some of these people on Twitter who use grotesque language and indiscriminately dole out threats. And you have continued to subscribe to their accounts even after their malevolence was highlighted in public and sparked controversies. That such people should be able to claim or have any affiliation to you does not behoove either you or the dignity of your office," he wrote.